I think Python may be your best bet. The vast majority of recruiters from whom I receive LinkedIn messages (and calls) as of late have all been looking for those with Python (and Django) experience. Python is a very minor point on my résumé, even though I've been using it off and on (and somewhat sparingly) for like 15 years. My first job was with a bunch of MIT grads who used it to create the first iteration of the product, in Python 1.5.2. So obviously I picked it up while I was there, but by the time I was working on the product itself it had been ported to C++, so I didn't have a ton of experience with it outside of troubleshooting issues (I was in tech support at the start). Also used it from time to time in scripts, and in an automated build and reporting system I wrote. I tried to use it a couple of years ago in some scripts to import a metric buttload of data into MongoDB (another popular recruiter subject, see the message I received today), but it ended up not being performant enough and I ported it to C with thread pooling.

Just interesting how suddenly Python's so much in demand. It's nice, but the problem I see is the Python version change from 2.x to 3.x, which I understand has some significant differences.

Latest recruiter message:

"I was brought on by the CEO of a very well funded startup, specifically to recruit strong software engineers. This is a company with alot of potential and very deep pockets. They are developing a SaaS product that involves a large amount of data processing, and they are using Python/Django, MongoDB, etc. There is a huge growth opportunity available with this role."

1 Comments On This Entry

And thanks for a timely post. I was gonna start learning Haskell but I remember Python from it, so I thought to myself I should probably finish something up first in Python before moving in to another language. This is the push I need. Thanks!